Once upon a time, back in the 1990s when I still watched TV, my fella Kenny and I used to watch South Park.

It was new back then, and the idea of a character getting killed off in almost every episode, returning in the next as though nothing had happened, was new, funny and quickly became a running joke between us.

He could have been crushed, shot, mauled, frozen, whatever the writers fancied that week, and to be fair there were occasions when I wanted to do much the same to my Kenny, particularly when we disagreed. All in good spirits, obviously, back when a sense of humour was allowed and someone didn’t get offended “every pair of plates”.

For the first few seasons, we would tease each other: “Oh my God, they killed Kenny AGAIN!”

Later, the reaction subsided, Kenny dies, nobody gives it much thought, everyone carries on with what they were doing, and sooner or later there he is again.

The same with Matilda and her lies, the boy who cried wolf and so on and so forth through history.

There is a parallel now with social media.

Just because you have a public profile, it does not mean that you owe anyone a response, an acknowledgement or even a reaction simply because they have decided to turn up in your comments, especially if they are using them to grind an axe or have something to prove.

Posting does not give anyone the right to attribute positions to you that you haven’t taken, belittle what you do, or use your replies to work through an argument of their own invention.

Commenting on a post does not stake a claim on the poster’s attention, and it certainly does not create an obligation for them to respond.

Somewhere along the line, people seem to have confused publishing a post with automatically endorsing whatever turns up underneath it, regardless of the actual premise of the post

So just to clarify in case there is any confusion here, a post does not automatically impose a social obligation on the poster to respond, validate or even acknowledge a comment. If there is a genuinely productive reason to engage, do it, that’s what discussion is for, but it is not obligatory and no amount of backup will make it so.

This might not be a popular post, and frankly that’s immaterial. Ignore, disagree, comment, do whatever you like, but if it’s not conducive to a positive interaction, expect to be ignored while I do something more useful, like research, have a life, or even do novel things like network or work.

My patience died in the late 90s along with both Kennys.

Have a good day all.